Welcome food lovers of Georgia! This blog will focus on reviews of Atlanta area restaurants, bars and specialty foods or grocery stores. The restaurants reviewed will feature many different types of food in all price ranges. I will not be reviewing chain restaurants. I will also pose general food questions, indicated by the heading "Food For Thought". "Special Features" will highlight food purveyors in the South. Please use it to your advantage, and contribute comments that will benefit others.

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Kirkwood Public House

1963 Hosea Williams Dr., Atlanta, GA www.kirkwoodpublichouse.com

Heidi and I had dinner at Kirkwood Public House on Friday night. It's in the same spot on Hosea Williams that Vinocity used to occupy. Parking is a little complicated. You may want to valet to avoid getting towed.

The beer selection was well above average. Kirkwood PH doesn't offer a ton of beers like Summits Wayside Tavern, but the several dozen available are good ones. Left Hand milk stout and Southhampton double white ale are some examples.

The Kirkwood Public House seems to have something special going on every night - Jazz Mondays, Texas Hold 'Em Tuesdays . . . on Friday night there was a sort of bluegrass band. Consequently it was very loud and we chose to sit outside, on the small but adequate patio.

Service was good throughout. Maybe a little slow towards the end of the evening.

Good luck trying to view the menu on the website. It's shown in dark red on a dark red/white background. Look closely and highlight the entire area. It's there. A few noteworthy items are the varied selection of sliders - you can choose lamb, turkey, pulled pork, veggie - you name it. 3 sliders for $9 and so on. Most of the other options are predictable, however. Buttermilk fried chicken, shrimp and grits, vegetarian penne pasta with an option to add meat. Ho hum. But I'm more forgiving of a boring menu if the restaurant has interesting beer, as this one does.

I ordered one of the daily specials, a flatbread with caremelized onions, portobello mushrooms and Parmesan topped with a little pile of arugula. This was OK, not super. The flatbread needed salt, some basil, diced tomato . . . something to give it more flavor. It was too bland, and a healthy dose of salt didn't help. The predominant flavor was garlic, and of that there was too much. The arugula helped, because it was dressed in a balsalmic vinaigrette. Still, I wouldn't order it again.

Heidi fared much better with her order, which was the chicken salad sandwich. The salad contained green olives, toasted almonds, lemon pepper mayo - what a great combination! Kudos to the chef on that one.

Verdict - Getting there with the food. Already a winner with the beer.